Motherboard Features

Input/Output (I/O) Controller

The SMSC LPC47B272 super I/O controller handles the exchange of information between the processor and external devices, such as a mouse, keyboard, or printer that are connected to the computer. The controller features the following:

∙Low pin count (LPC) interface

∙Two serial ports

∙Infrared port (IrDA 1.1 compliant)

∙One parallel port with Extended Capabilities Port (ECP) and Enhanced Parallel Port (EPP) support

∙PS/2–style mouse and keyboard interfaces

∙Interface for one 1.2 MB, 1.44 MB, or 2.88 MB diskette drive

∙Intelligent power management, including a programmable wake up event interface

∙Dual game port interface

∙MPU-401 MIDI support

∙Fan control:

⎯Two pulse width modulation (PWM) fan speed control outputs

⎯Two fan tachometer inputs

The BIOS Setup program provides configuration options for the I/O controller.

Real-Time Clock

The motherboard has a time-of-day clock and 100-year calendar that will rollover to 2000 at the turn of the century. A battery on the motherboard keeps the clock current when the computer is turned off.

✏NOTE

The recommended method of accessing the date in systems with Intel motherboards is indirectly from the Real-Time Clock (RTC) via the BIOS. The BIOS on Intel motherboards and baseboards contains a century checking and maintenance feature that checks the least two significant digits of the year stored in the RTC during each BIOS request (INT 1Ah) to read the date and, if less than 80 (i.e., 1980 is the first year supported by the PC), updates the century byte to 20. This feature enables operating systems and applications using the BIOS date/time services to reliably manipulate the year as a four-digit value.

For more information on proper date access in systems with Intel motherboards please see: http://support.intel.com/support/year2000/paper.htm

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